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Nestled in the heart of Old San Juan stands a lovingly restored 19th century colonial-style building, the elegant and charming Decanter Hotel. A four-story landmark built around 1880, the Decanter offers 20 hotel guest rooms and suites with exquisite décor. Experience the best of this magical city from our hotel, located just steps from the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista and many other cultural attractions, savory restaurants and vibrant nightlife.
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Decanter Hotel stands out for its prime location and charming atmosphere that reflect an authentic historical ambiance, as noted by many guests. The rooms are generally appreciated for their comfort and space, although there have been some concerns regarding noise and maintenance. While the rooftop bars and other amenities are well-liked, a few travelers have pointed out limitations in services and dining options.
Opinions on value and cleanliness vary, with some praising the hotel's efforts but others indicating occasional lapses. The staff receives acclaim for being friendly, though service consistency has been questioned by some visitors.
Location
Convenient
Atmosphere
Charming
Rooms
Comfortable
Value
Expensive
Cleanliness
Mixed
Service
Inconsistent
Amenities
Satisfactory
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The location was in a safe area within walking distance to many historical sites. It is right in the middle of the night life which does make sleeping challenging. You may need to ask for cleaning services or fresh linens because this is not completed automatically for those staying multiple nights. The staff are friendly. Know what is in the area before you go. There are no maps provided by the hotel of what is near you. You may want to ask if the restaurant will be open for easy access to breakfast, it was surprisingly closed while we were there so we did need to hunt down meal options. The coffee machine in the lobby is better than what is in the room. The room machine does take pods if you want to bring your own, I was not aware of this and wasn’t prepared. The bed was comfortable, the room was comfortable (king room with French balcony). The shower water pressure was more like drips of water and the pebbled floors were a little hard on the feet. Overall we enjoyed our stay but would most likely try a new place next time. The price seemed a bit high. I should also note that most bathroom fixtures like towel racks etc. we’re falling off the wall or not installed properly. We didn’t expect those types of issues at the price we paid. We stayed two nights in advance of our cruise.
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Review collected in partnership with this hotel
Date of stay: January 2025
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Location location location! Right in the heart of old San Juan. Love this hotel. Very friendly staff and the young lady who I had a nice chat with at the front desk was very knowledgeable about old San Juan and the surrounding area. She gave us some great recommendations.
The four of us (2 couples) had two balcony suites that connected to each other and they were very spacious clean and nice King size beds. We did not know initially we had adjoining suites but we loved it. This would also be great for 2 families.
Be mindful you are in the middle of all the action so if you are a light sleeper you may have a long night Lol. But once the bars closed it was very peaceful.
Bathrooms were spacious with large showers.
This hotel also has a great roof top deck and and bar and they serve food. Drinks were very good.
We would definitely stay here again and highly recommend it.
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Date of stay: May 2024Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Bring walking shoes and comfortable clothing, because you will need it. Truly a walkable town...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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Often in real estate, it is said the 3 most important factors are (1) location, (2) location, and (3) location. Those factors are what makes the Decanter Hotel special. It's location in the old section of San Juan make it very easy to walk to many of the main attractions of this part of the city. Many good restaurants are within a few blocks walk (since the Decanter doesn't have a restaurant of its own.) Our interior room was small (as expected) and the bed could have been better, but the HVAC system worked well and the walk-in shower was especially nice. The Wi-Fi requires signing in through a browers and likes to time out fairly often which can be a big annoying. Being an older building, noise from people partying in center courtyard or the roof-top bar does tend to filter into the room so it's a little distracting. Again, we choose this hotel for its convenience to getting to places in Old Town San Juan. That's where this place shines.
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Review collected in partnership with this hotel
Date of stay: November 2023
Value
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The hotel is wonderfully located in old town SJ with friendly and helpful staff. Unfortunately many small things are not attended to - only hazelnut coffee was available and the main coffee machine in the lobby was broken during our 5-day stay. Coffee could be purchased down the road, but there was always a line. Also, no hand soap available for the sink. We were told to use shower gel, which came in a little tiny container. Noise from partying at night was very loud every night, including lots of partyers screaming, and loud music. But early morning is calm and quite nice. Despite having reserved a "balcony" room we were assigned an interior room and the receptionist told me that's what I had booked until I showed them our printed reservation that we had booked a balcony room. However, balcony rooms were booked and occupied - we arrived late at night. The supervisor, the next morning, insisted that our interior room was a balcony room! When I asked her to show me the "balcony," on the interior ground floor of the hotel, she showed me double doors that opened into the common sitting area. If you reserve, make sure you choose the type of room and confirm with them in writing the floor that you will be on. Also poor maintenance - see photo of trashbin; towel rack came apart when we pulled the towel; water came in during night rain and wet our stuff. Kitchen had no utensils, not even a teaspoon! only 3 wine glasses and a decanter, along with good size microwave and fridge. ROOFTOP bar was excellent. Great views, great service and good drinks and tapas. Music not too loud - a rare thing in old town.
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Date of stay: February 2025
Value
Rooms
Location
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Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip:Don't miss the rooftop bar. Great location in old San Juan, but don't expect to sleep much!
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The location is great. The front desk staff were helpful especially Francisco (the restaurants he recommended were great). But the house cleaners and staff of maintenance department were not be complimented. We stayed for 5 nights. On the 2nd day, the fan stopped working, and we reported on the 3rd day, but until our departure, it was not fixed. The house cleaners cleaned everything but there were always dusts on the floor. On the last day of our stay, there were no refill of water; no refill for bath tissue; no refill of shampoo; there was water on the bathroom counter; no replacement for the glasses; bad skill to make our beds. Being the guests, we always made the beds and organized our goods, and if the garbage bags were full we took them out. San Juan is a pleasant place to visit. But the stay in the Decanter Hotel was not impressive.
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Date of stay: January 2024
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Yvette Nevares, General Manager at Decanter Hotel
Responded 10 Feb 2024
We are very sorry to hear about your uncharacteristic experience with our housekeeping service and will definitely take your feedback seriously. I would have loved to hear about this before reading this review, sometimes speaking to a manager makes a difference, especially if you need basics such as amenities, water, etc. Our sincere apologies.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
The decanter is in a great location on a quiet street just one block from the main plaza. The rooms are very clean with comfortable beds and excellent AC in the hot climate. The roof top bar is a great location to unwind. The staff is very friendly and helpful. The rooms are small but have high ceilings.
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Review collected in partnership with this hotel
Date of stay: February 2025
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I absolutely loved this hotel! We were out there during a power outage, on New Years Eve. Luckily the hotel has a back generator. We were able to ring in the New Year from the rooftop bar! You could see firework displays all around. It was magical! The room is sobspacious and the vaulted ceilings made it feel even bigger. I loved stepping out on the deck and watching the activity!
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Date of stay: January 2025
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
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Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip:There is valet parking across from the hotel. Hotel staff was AWESOME! Room was beyond my...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Throughly enjoyed this hotel. We first stayed in the elegant El Conqistadore and was very disappointed. This hotels hospitality and accommodations top rate. The staff was very knowledgeable and was very obviously concerned with making our stay perfect
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Review collected in partnership with this hotel
Date of stay: October 2023
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Yvette Nevares, General Manager at Decanter Hotel
Responded 9 Nov 2023
We are happy to hear that your experience at our boutique hotel was so wonderful. Thank you!
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Centrally located, on a relatively quiet (but not dead) street in Old San Juan. Most everything is walkible in OSJ, just keep in mind the heat, steep hills, and cobbled streets. We were 2 couples staying in Rooms 304 and 305. We were balcony neighbors which was fantastic. We loved being able to communicate from balconies. The rooms consisted of a bedroom, living room, bathroom (shower, no tub), and balcony. Great old world style with modern amenities. Elevator and I believe a generator should power go out. Room 304 was good except of the band-aid on the fire alarm (I assume to cover a disturbing light), opened water bottles, and the strange tape on the safe batteries.
Room 305 had issues: poor to zero lighting in the bedroom, no way to reach the ceiling fan pulls and no remote for it, balcony lock did not work, and worse, the air conditioning did not work and left a puddle on the floor during the night.
Having said that, maintenance was extremely quick to address these problems. They worked on them, but they weren't fixed by the time we left. We stayed 2 nights. The air conditioning line was frozen. They improved it for the second night, but it was still hot. Since the balcony didn't lock anyway, that door was kept open for a breeze. There is street noise which is to be expected, but nothing that kept us awake. It's a lively city at night. The hotel refunded the room $100 per night for the inconveniences.
The first night we were there, OSJ had a water problem so the hotel told us they were turning the water off from 10pm to 6am and that the restaurant would be closed. It wasn't the hotel's fault. It was all of OSJ. Apparently it happens from time to time. We were told by locals that we were lucky the electricity was still on. The hotel did provide us with free water.
Please don't use my issues as an excuse not to stay at the Decanter. All four of us actually LOVED staying there. It's Old San Juan; it's old. We would be thrilled to revisit the Decanter. It's in a great location, the staff were very attentive, and it was clean.
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Date of stay: March 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Driving in Old San Juan seemed atrocious. I would avoid it if possible as parking seemed nearly...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hotel Decanter was the perfect place to stay in Old San Juan, offering authentic architecture, great staff, Caribbean atmosphere, easy walking distance to neighborhood shopping, restaurants, bars, Del Morro, San Cristobal, waterfront and cruise ship terminal. We truly enjoyed the neighborhood's ambiance and walking on the waterfront through last Gate of the city, watching the kites fly at Del Morro and amazing sunsets. We would definitely return in the future and stay at Hotel Decanter.
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Review collected in partnership with this hotel
Date of stay: January 2025
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
San Juan, Puerto Rico7 contributions3 helpful votes
Greetings!
We hope you are well and in health. Thank you for contacting us. Yes, our hotel has handicap accessories, an elevator and it's also a smoke-free environment.
Please call us (787-463-9989) and we will gladly assist you to complete your reservation and answer any questions or concerns that you might have.
Guest Services
Decanter Hotel
San Juan, Puerto Rico7 contributions3 helpful votes
Hello and thank you for booking a room with us. Street parking is not available for non-residents of Old San Juan after 6pm and on weekends. Unless you park for a few hours during the day, you might have to pay a hefty fee. There are several parking lots, one in front of the hotel, by the Cathedral, operated by Hotel El Convento. The closest ones are La Cochera on Luna St and Ballaja lot. Whether you can store your surfboards or not only depends on the size of your room, since we have a variety of sizes from small to very spacious. You should call us at the hotel, we would be happy to assist you once we have your reservation details.
San Juan, Puerto Rico7 contributions3 helpful votes
Hi! The hotel sells wine at very reasonable prices and there's also a supermarket in Old San Juan that carries plenty of choices. Costco is a bit far, you would probably spend more money and time just to get there. I'm sure you will find everything you need within walking distance. Enjoy!
There are more places to choose from in the San Juan area.
PRICE RANGE
AU$419 - AU$644 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
LOCATION
CaribbeanPuerto RicoSan Juan
NUMBER OF ROOMS
19
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